Among the first funding of the Loto du Patrimoine, hosted by Stephane Bern, is the troglodyte village of Barry in Bollène.
This unusual village, clinging to the side of a hill overlooking the Tricastin, has been permanently occupied from the Neolithic period to the dawn of the 20th century.
Carved in a soft rock, a molasse, the caves have been gradually transformed to cross the ages.
The caves of prehistory are next to a Roman oppidum and a medieval village.
The last inhabitants left the troglodyte site in 1914 but since 2007 a barrier has blocked access to the village above Bollène.
The cliffs threaten to collapse. To save this classified site, the association of defense of Barry participated in the drawing of the lottery organized by Stéphane Bern to finance sites in danger.
Many historians see in Barry Aéria, the main city of the Tricastini, Celto-Ligurian people, described by the Greek writer and geographer Strabo at the time of the Conquest of Gaul (18 BC).
The discovery of a considerable quantity of ancient coins and medals in the vicinity of the site attests to a Roman occupation, as does the proximity of Saint-Pierre de Sénos, which today depends on Bollène, and which occupies the site of an ancient Roman city named "Senomagus".
This site has sheltered an intense life. Quarrymen exploiting the stone of the massif since Roman times lived in this village. Chapels were erected there, only one remains the chapel of Notre Dame d'Espérance, which the commune restored in 2014.
The location of a troglodytic village here is explained not only by the ideal situation against the rock facing south, thus sheltered from the Mistral and sunny, as opposed to the medieval village exposed to the winds, but also by the presence of a soft rock easy to cut.
Troglodytic village of Barry
Montée de Barry
84500 Bollène
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